Biomedical subjects

D H Kausler

Publications and source records attributed to D H Kausler.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1992

Adult age differences in short-term memory and subsequent long-term memory for actions.

Short-term memory for actions was investigated for young adult and elderly adult subjects with the Brown-Peterson procedure at retention intervals of 0 and 15 s. The short-term memory trials were followed by the long-term recall of the prior to-be-remembered actions. The 15-s retention interval was filled either with no activity or with 1 of 3 different interfering activities. Verbal interference had little effect on short-term memory at either age level. Actions performed in the interval either by the subjects or by the experimenter produced significantly lower recall scores at each age level, with the decrement being more pronounced for the elderly than for the young subjects. The long-term memory results indicated that successful short-term recall enhanced later long-term recall, regardless of age level.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Effects of short-term retrieval on adult age differences in long-term recall of actions.

In Experiment 1 young and elderly subjects either recalled or repeated after every block of 4 actions, whereas control subjects received neither interpolated short-term recall nor action repetition. On a later long-term memory test, experimental subjects, regardless of age or condition, recalled slightly more actions than control subjects. In Experiment 2 young adult and elderly subjects received 12 short-term memory trials in which 2 actions were performed on each trial, but only 1 was cued for recall after a brief retention interval filled with a distracting activity. On a later long-term memory test for the actions performed on the short-term trials, both young and elderly subjects recalled significantly more previously cued than noncued actions. The Age X Cuing Condition interaction was negligible. Prior retrieval of actions appears to enhance later recall regardless of age but seemingly only when prior retrieval requires considerable cognitive effort (as in Experiment 2).

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Adult age differences in memory for massed and distributed repeated actions.

Adult age differences in memory for actions were investigated in 2 experiments in which actions were repeated with massed or distributed spacing. In Experiment 1, subjects received a mixed series of actions, half performed once, the others twice, with repetitions either massed or distributed. Young subjects recalled more actions than did the elderly, and more distributed actions were recalled than massed actions. However, the Age X Spacing interaction was not significant. A probable inhibitory mechanism with a mixed list was avoided in Experiment 2 by use of unmixed series. Actions were performed once only, twice only in massed repetitions, or twice only in distributed repetitions. The age difference was significant, and more actions were recalled in the distributed condition than in either of the other conditions, the results of which did not differ from one another. The Age X Conditions interaction was negligible. These results imply that elderly subjects are as likely as young subjects to encode contextual information while performing actions.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Effects of prior retrieval on adult age differences in long-term recall of activities.

The beneficial effects of prior short-term retrieval on the later long-term recall of activities were tested for both young adult and elderly adult subjects. For a series of 12 activities, short-term recall tests occurred after each block of 2, 4, or 6 activities. Relative to a control condition receiving no interpolated short-term tests, long-term recall was higher overall for the interpolated recall conditions at both age levels. However, the magnitude of the age-related deficit was unaffected by the various conditions. The greatest increment in long-term recall occurred for the groups receiving short-term tests after every four activities. The optimal benefit of prior retrieval as a mnemonic seems to come from conditions that demand some degree of cognitive effort as well as a moderately high level of successful short-term retrieval. In addition, a significant age-related deficit in recall was found for a short list of 6 activities as well as for the longer list of 12 activities.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Temporal memory and content memory for actions: adult age differences in acquisition and retention.

Young adult and elderly adult subjects were tested under incidental memory conditions for recognition memory of content and temporal memory for the order of a series of actions performed in the laboratory. The tests were conducted both shortly after completion of the series and 24 hours later, with different sets of actions tested on each occasion. Recognition memory of content showed no forgetting for the young subjects, but significant forgetting for the elderly subjects. Memory for temporal information was substantially greater for the young subjects than for the elderly subjects. Both age groups showed substantial forgetting of temporal information over the 24-hour retention interval.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Age, self-assessed health status, and cognition.

Data from a recent project involving 362 adults ranging from 20 to 79 years of age were reanalyzed to examine the effects of statistical control of self-assessed health status on the age trends in several measures of cognitive functioning. The major result was that the age trends were virtually identical with, and without, control of the health-status variable. Implications of the views that the lack of health influences was due to a narrow range of health status or to insensitive assessment of health status were discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1979

Effects of word frequency on adult age differences in word memory span.

The present study tested the hypothesis that the age deficits in memory span commonly found in elderly adults are attributable, at least in part, to elaborative rehearsal processes. The test required an analysis of age differences between young and elderly adult subjects in word span for list types varying in word frequency. Significant age deficits were found for all list types, with the magnitude of the deficit increasing as the frequency of intrastring items increased. The pattern of this interaction indicated the involvement of a decreased proficiency in elaborative rehearsal with increasing age as a contributor to the age deficit in word span.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1979

Adult age differences in false recognitions.

Adult age differences in the depth of processing in recognition memory were examined for the three groups with mean ages of 19, 45, and 70 years. Subjects were tested for phonological and semantic false recognitions with a continuous recognition memory procedure using both moderate (4 sec) and slow (8 sec) presentation rates. Both middle-aged and elderly subjects displayed a greater false recognition effect for both rhymes (phonological) and synonyms (semantic) of previously presented items than did young adults. Thus, there appeared to be little, if any, age-related deficit in depth of processing as defined on a sensory-semantic dimension. On the other hand, middle-aged and elderly subjects correctly recognized fewer of the previously presented (i.e., old) items than did the young adults. Age-level differences in retention of old item information were viewed as reflecting differences in the extent of elaboration within a processing domain. Rate of presentation did not affect either processing depth as measured by false recognitions, or memory per se as measured by the recognition of old items.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1978

Comments on Winn and Elias: testing the rehearsal deficit hypothesis.

Winn and Elias, [Experimental Aging Research, 1977, 3 (4)], recently tested a version of the rehearsal deficit hypothesis in which elderly adults are viewed as being less likely to rehearse spontaneously than are young adults. Since their results failed to support this variant of the deficit hypothesis, Winn and Elias concluded that elderly adults do not manifest a rehearsal deficit. The present position is that Winn and Elias's version of the deficit hypothesis is an untenable one. Their results actually supported an alternative version of the hypothesis that identifies deficit in terms of elaborative or mediational rehearsal.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

Age differences in processing relevant versus irrelevant stimuli in multiple-item recognition learning.

Age differences in the processing of relevant stimuli were examined under two levels of irrelevant stimulation. The relevant stimuli were the right words of a multiple-item recognition learning task; the two levels of irrelevant stimulation were provided by the pairing of one wrong word (two-alternative items) versus three wrong words (four-alternative items) with each right word. Elderly subjects were inferior to young adults in the learning of four-alternative items, but not in the learning of two-alternative items. This finding supports the hypothesis, derived from previous research on perceptual tasks, that elderly adults direct greater amounts of attention to irrelevant stimuli than do young adults, thus reducing the amount of processing available for the accompanying relevant stimuli. However, despite their presumed greater attention to irrelevant stimuli, elderly subjects recognized fewer individual wrong words on a subsequent memory test than did young adults. This age-related effect was interpreted in terms of depth of processing theory.

Adult↗

PubMed1975

Item recognition following a multiple-item study trial for young and middle-aged adults.

The presence study contrasted young and middle-aged subjects on two components of a recognition memory task (a modified verbal discrimination task) that differed in level of difficulty. No age decrement was found for the easier component requiring discriminability between the oldness and newness of items. In addition, age was not a factor in determining the effects of prior relevance or irrelevance of item information on old-new discriminability. An age decrement was found for the more difficult component requiring discriminability in terms of an old item's prior function in the study list. The decrement occurred for the identification of prior function of both right and wrong items.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Variation in external context and adult age differences in action memory.

Adult age differences were determined for the memory and retention of the content of actions. Variation in the physical context from the time of performance of the actions to the time of testing for their memory had no effect for either young or elderly adult subjects on the recall or the recognition of the actions either shortly after acquisition or 24 hours later. Both young and elderly subjects showed significant forgetting of actions over a 24-hour retention interval as measured by recall.

Adolescent↗